Apple will release its own electric vehicle one day for sure. According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple Car will arrive no earlier than 2025-2027.
Many expect Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) to enter the auto business and make competition for Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA). There have been speculations about the company working on its vehicle project, but no official information or comments were provided. Finally, on Monday, in an interview on the “Sway” podcast, Apple CEO Tim Cook shed some light on the Apple Car project.
He stated:
“The autonomy itself is a core technology, in my view. If you sort of step back, the car, in a lot of ways, is a robot. An autonomous car is a robot. And so there’s lots of things you can do with autonomy. And we’ll see what Apple does.”
Cook further added:
“We investigate so many things internally. Many of them never see the light of day. I’m not saying that one will not.”
Tim Cook did not reveal much about whether Apple was developing a car itself or the technology only,:
“We love to integrate hardware, software, and services, and find the intersection points of those because we think that’s where the magic occurs. And so that’s what we love to do. And we love to own the primary technology that’s around that.”
In addition, Tim Cook mentioned his relationship with Tesla CEO Elon Musk who has recently revealed that he wanted to sell Tesla to Apple. It turned out that the tech leaders have never met.
Cook said:
“You know I’ve never spoken to Elon, although I have great admiration and respect for the company he has built. I think Tesla has done an unbelievable job of not only establishing the lead but keeping the lead for such a long period of time in the EV space. So I have great appreciation for them.”
Notably, if the CEOs met, they would make fruitful collaboration.
Apple Car Project
Talks about Apple working on an electric vehicle appeared long ago. The company itself has been adding fuel to these rumors. In 2014, Apple began working on “Project Titan”, but not much was clear about the progress. The project faced numerous issues, and many thought Apple abandoned its plan to develop a car. However, now it is obvious that the company has overcome development problems and still plans to develop a vehicle. Back in 2018, Apple was reportedly in talks with German auto giant Volkswagen AG (XETRA: VOW) to manufacture an autonomous employee shuttle van. However, the partnership failed as a result of high-profile test crashes and employee leaks. In 2019, Apple even acquired self-driving startup Drive.ai.
In January this year, Apple was in talks with South Korean automobile giant Hyundai Motor Company (OTCMKTS: HYMTF). The companies were discussing a partnership for an autonomous electric car.
Apple will release its own electric vehicle one day for sure. According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple Car will arrive no earlier than 2025-2027.
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